1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a musical instrument transducer, and pertains, more particularly, to a piezoelectric transducer used with a stringed musical instrument and disclosed herein for use in particular with a guitar.
2. Background Discussion
At the present time, the prior art shows a variety of electromechanical transducers employing piezoelectric materials such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,580 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,051 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,495. Most of these piezoelectric transducers are not completely effective in faithfully converting mechanical movements or vibrations into electrical output signals which precisely correspond to the character of the input vibrations. This lack of fidelity is primarily due to the nature of the mechanical coupling between the driving vibratile member and the piezoelectric material. Some of these prior art structures such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,051 are also quite complex in construction and become quite expensive to fabricate
Reference is also now made to my copending applications, both on a musical instrument transducer, application Ser. No. 06/876,238 filed June 19, 1986 and application Ser. No. 06/876,989 filed June 19, 1986. Application Ser. No. 06/876,238 describes a piezoelectric transducer for use in a stringed musical instrument such as a guitar and is in the form of a single unitary transducer array adapted to be disposed under an existing instrument saddle.